Masa's Sunset - 2013-2014 Dawn of the Yahoo! Information Leak

Masa's Sunset - 2013-2014 Dawn of the Yahoo! Information Leak

In 2013, Yahoo! suffered an extremely serious information breach. Initially reported as "over 1 billion accounts compromised," it was later announced that all 3 billion accounts were affected. 2014 saw another breach of approximately 500 million records, which included names, email addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, hashed passwords, and sometimes encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.

At the time of this incident, Internet services and cloud computing were rapidly proliferating, and online accounts had become a fundamental part of everyday life. Because of the widespread use of features such as account linking and single sign-on (SSO), any information leakage from a Yahoo! In addition, companies tended to prioritize growth and convenience over data protection, and in many cases, security systems had not kept pace.

In September 2016, the company first announced the 2014 breach and then the 2013 breach. The company eventually admitted to affecting 3 billion records and was fined $35 million by the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) for corporate liability. Also in 2017, four Russian intelligence officials and others were indicted for their involvement in the 2014 breach, which also raised suspicions of state-sponsored cyberattacks.

The Yahoo! leak was a turning point that alerted society to the value and dangers of personal data. The Yahoo! leak was a turning point that alerted society to the value and dangers of personal data. It was a historical lesson that forced companies and governments to rebuild information security systems, transparency, and accountability, not as something that would happen someday, but as something that had already happened.